Razorback Greenway and other NWA Trail Systems

[Mith242]

I braved the rain earlier to search around for the more of the Razorback Greenway in Springdale.  I did notice they've already broken ground on Powell St north of Hwy 412.  Looks like they've also done some marking on Park St as well.  Sorta surprised to see any changes there from my trip earlier in the week.  This time I was better prepared and was able to pick up the trail at the park near Meadow Ave.  I believe all of that was done to where it turns northward toward Emma Ave.  The railroad tracks are a bit rough if you're on bicycle though.  Not sure if they'll try to smooth that out eventually.  You can see all sorts of work around Emma Ave area but nothing finished around that area.  Once I was north of Huntsville Ave I lost track of it for a while.  I eventually picked it up again near a cemetery on N Shiloh St.  I even found a completed section, but I was on a bridge above it and couldn't really find a way down to it.  Anyway I'm guessing it's a small completed section.  Saw some more signs of construction around Saunders Ave and the very beginnings of some construction a little further north at Bailey Ave.  A little further north I believe it's going to eventually go under Hwy 71 via a bridge near a creek.  Trying to follow the trail any further will be difficult.  Not only would I have to cross Hwy 71 but the trail will eventually hit an area where there really aren't many streets.  So I have no idea how things are coming along in that area of Springdale once it's west of Hwy 71.  Probably just going to have to wait for a lot more of the trail to be completed before I might be able to venture in that part of Springdale to check things out.

Oh and as a side note, you can tell you're from Fayetteville when you want to keep naming all north-south streets as avenues and it feels really odd to label east-west roads as avenues.  

[aerotive]

Didn't realize any of the Springdale stuff was open but tried it out thanks to the info here.  The on-road part in Springdale is better than I expected, though it might feel unsafe especially for people who are beginners.  Not really what to call it, cycletrack maybe?  There's some fairly wide paint and it's lined with poles.  Not as good as separated trail but it felt fine to me and I don't see anyone being put off by it.  Just have to watch for turning traffic.

[nikk4s]

Wife and I rode from downtown to Lake Fayetteville.  They were graveling some of the trail on Powell north of 412 to prep it for pavement.  The bike route on Powell south of there was pretty nice.  I hope they will add signage to warn drivers making left turns to look out for trail users like they did on the bike route north of Lake Springdale.  The intersection with the Lake Fayetteville trail was nicely done.  This made for a much nicer ride than our usual route down Turner St.

 

They are pouring pavement on the creek side section south of Emma Ave this week.  It's weird to see sections they've been working on for months still covered in gravel while sections they just dug up already have pavement down.

 

Glad you guys are getting up here to explore some.  I'll try to keep you up to date with what I see.

[Mith242]

Wife and I rode from downtown to Lake Fayetteville.  They were graveling some of the trail on Powell north of 412 to prep it for pavement.  The bike route on Powell south of there was pretty nice.  I hope they will add signage to warn drivers making left turns to look out for trail users like they did on the bike route north of Lake Springdale.  The intersection with the Lake Fayetteville trail was nicely done.  This made for a much nicer ride than our usual route down Turner St.

 

They are pouring pavement on the creek side section south of Emma Ave this week.  It's weird to see sections they've been working on for months still covered in gravel while sections they just dug up already have pavement down.

 

Glad you guys are getting up here to explore some.  I'll try to keep you up to date with what I see.

 

Thanks for the update.  Yeah I had seen them doing some work on Powell north of Hwy 412 but forgot to mention it.  They've also taken the bicycle lane striping away on Park St and you can tell they'll eventually start doing work there as well.  Would be really nice if we could travel to downtown Springdale mostly by trail in several weeks or a month.

[nikk4s]

It doesn't look like it will be long. They've been paving some on the north section of Powell this week.

[nikk4s]

http://imgur.com/nORC8vX /URL]

http://imgur.com/pN8Qiou /URL]

http://imgur.com/dVhel6F /URL]

Bridge work along the creek west of Park street. The trail along Park street is being dug up and gravelled.

[Mith242]

http://imgur.com/nORC8vX /URL]

http://imgur.com/pN8Qiou /URL]

http://imgur.com/dVhel6F /URL]

Bridge work along the creek west of Park street. The trail along Park street is being dug up and gravelled.

 

Haven't had any time to head up to Springdale lately to see how things were going till today.  Seems like they're making good progress on Powell north of Hwy 412 and on Park St as well.  At this rate maybe most of those areas will be paved in a couple of weeks.  But still puzzled why the downtown Springdale section doesn't seem to be going anywhere with construction.  

In Fayetteville news, looks like the Mud Creek Trail updates are basically complete.  They've widened the section at the Mall Ave bridge and they also patched up a couple of rough areas further east as well.  I also noticed that the city has started doing some preliminary work on the future extension of the Frisco Trail southwards through Walker Park.  Even looks like they've done a little south of 15th St as well.  Guess that will be the next area they'll work on before they connect up the Frisco Trail with the Town Branch Creek Trail.  Right now it still ends at Hwy 71 a little south of Mountain Man Pawn.  

[nikk4s]

Good news! It looks like they put down gravel for the Shiloh square segment downtown. They're weaving it through the future park where Mill street was.

[IronScott]

Good news! It looks like they put down gravel for the Shiloh square segment downtown. They're weaving it through the future park where Mill street was.

Thanks for the reports! Glad to see the progress.

[Mith242]

Was up checking out the Razorback Greenway in Springdale again.  There's a small sliver of land between Johnson Ave and E Huntsville Ave.  Just across a creek and east of the Shiloh Museum.  I suppose maybe the museum owns the land.  But I figured the trail would simply go in that sliver of 'park' land.  But I noticed they're putting steel pylons near the creek.  So I guess at least part of the trail might be suspended above the actual creek.  Maybe a bit like the way the trail comes of the side of the cliff near the big bridge over Clear Creek.  Thought it seemed rather interesting.  I guess they didn't want the trail taking up almost all of that sliver of land on the east side of the creek.

[nikk4s]

I was looking at that today myself.  I know there was talk of a "boardwalk" section of the trail.  We rode from downtown south down Park and Powell this morning.  A lot more work has been done in filling in the driveways that were interrupting the trail.  The trail after crossing Robinson has had no changes, but was enjoyable as we made our way down to the lake and did a loop around.  After we returned home, I jumped in the car to see what was happening north of us.  It looked like the trail is complete from Hunt park to the other side of I-49.  Beyond that, maybe 70% is completed to Rogers.

 

I also had to run into Fayetteville today and saw where they had widened the bridge sections on Mud creek.  That improvement was long overdue and I was glad to see it.   

[Mith242]

I also had to run into Fayetteville today and saw where they had widened the bridge sections on Mud creek.  That improvement was long overdue and I was glad to see it.   

 

Yeah it's too bad it took this long.  Ironically, now a lot of people, including myself, used to take the Mud Creek Trail to get up to Lake Fayetteville.  But now with the Clear Creek Trail, I don't really use the Mud Creek Trail very much anymore.  So it's a nice improvement but it's too bad it didn't come sooner when it might have had a bigger impact.

[IronScott]

Mith or Nikk - is the connection from the LF trail to the Springdale trail open? I have looked while on my bike but couldn't find it.

[Mith242]

Mith or Nikk - is the connection from the LF trail to the Springdale trail open? I have looked while on my bike but couldn't find it.

 

Yeah, it's the main reason why I've been checking out the Springdale sections of the Razorback Greenway.  It's around the northwest section.  Look for the big circle of orangish red bricks.  From the North Shore Park you hit the steep section then past the area where you go through the thick forested area.  Then as you go up the slope it opens up it opens up and you gets some of the meadow area.  You should see the circle about where the trail heads from northeast to direct east with the big open meadow to the south of you.

[IronScott]

Yeah, it's the main reason why I've been checking out the Springdale sections of the Razorback Greenway.  It's around the northwest section.  Look for the big circle of orangish red bricks.  From the North Shore Park you hit the steep section then past the area where you go through the thick forested area.  Then as you go up the slope it opens up it opens up and you gets some of the meadow area.  You should see the circle about where the trail heads from northeast to direct east with the big open meadow to the south of you.

Ah, thanks. I know where you're talking about. I thought it was going to near the botanical gardens.

[Mith242]

A lot of the new sections of trail in Fayetteville held up pretty well to the heavy rains.  Particularly the Clear Creek Trail.  Johnson seems to be the 'flooding mecca' of NWA.  But I couldn't tell any section of the Clear Creek Trail was ever under water.  I was really surprised on the section of trail that goes under College Ave near Locomotion right next to Clear Creek.  The northern extension of the Scull Creek Trail also seemed to hold up very well.  But all the other usual spots in Fayetteville had the usual problems.  Basically from Van Asche down to the one bridge between Sycamore and Poplar.  Down south all the newer sections also did pretty well.  Granted most of them really aren't too close to any waterways.  The one exception was the current eastern end of the Town Branch Creek Trail right under 71B/S School Ave.  Does look like it was under water at some point.  

[IronScott]

The wife and I rode from MLK up to the mall just under 71B. I would echo your sentiments. You could tell the water was very high in spots and several spots had a thin layer of mud but it appeared to have been cleared by the city. There was a running race yesterday morning on Scull and Clear creek both and I didn't hear any complaints.

The two new widened sections south of the mall are fantastic. Much safer than before.

[Mith242]

Been out checking out the trails again this weekend.  Finally made it back up to Springdale.  Paved a decent amount of trail between Hwy 412 East and the park near Meadow.  But still lots of gaps, enough to make it still rather unusable for now.  Tried checking out some sections further north as well.  A bit disappointed to not being able to tell much has been done north, between the downtown area and Hwy 71.  From what I can see doesn't seem like much has happened at all in that section for the past couple of months.  Having some doubts the Razorback Greenway will be finished at the end of the year.  

Not much else has been done along the western section of Walker Park down in south Fayetteville.  Looks like they're focusing on the section south of 15th.  Guessing they're saving the park section for last.  Maybe wait till it's later in the year and even less pedestrian traffic out in the park.

[nikk4s]

I share your frustration in the work being done in Springdale.  Surely, a lot is going on, but large gaps keep being left making any one section unusable.  I rode across town to Hunt Park this weekend to try out the trail north.  I had to ride in the road for a small section at Puppy Creek up to Monroe Ave.  Once past the convenience store, it is trail again all the way to Rogers.  There is one section of quiet residential street for a couple blocks and the downtown section there.  All in all it's pretty nice.  There were a couple of places where some signs would have been very helpful.  The biggest were around the crossing of I-49 at New Hope.  Right after you cross under NH, you turn right onto the sidewalk and follow it around to the side of New Hope.  After you get across the interstate, you have to turn left to loop up and around to street level again.  I passed both of these turns and had to backtrack before continuing on.  

[Mith242]

Progress is still being made on the Greenway in Springdale north of Hwy 412.  But there's still gaps, so if you're on bicycle you still pretty much have to stick to the road.  Still haven't seen any sign of them working on the bridge at the park yet.  But at least there seems to be progress downtown.  Looks like they've finally started paving around the Shiloh Square area.  Some progress also being made on the elevated section just north of the Shiloh Square as well.  But no idea when they'll actually be ready to pave.  Everything I'm hearing from is still saying the Greenway should be finished at the end of the year as long as there isn't any weather related delay.  But looks like cold weather will be coming in soon.  Unless it warms back up, my trips out will probably be shorter and sticking more to just the Fayetteville area.

[Mith242]

Hit Springdale one more time and headed a little further north.  Was able to access more of the Greenway around Sanders.  Tried heading northwest but the pavement ends before it crosses under 71B.  Walked the bicycle underneath and got back on the pavement on the other side.  Unfortunately didn't get too far before the trail is blocked off near a creek or drainage area.  The bridge was paved but no guardrails so it was blocked off.  Terrain was too rough to try to go around the blockage and keep going.  That and it looked like some barbed wire fence on the other side as well.  I've gotten the impression most of the Razorback Greenway in northwest Springdale is complete.  Anyway headed back and this time tried crossing Sanders and this time take the trail southward.  Was able to get pretty far but it's not paved all the way to Hunstville Rd though.  Lots of debris on the trail in this area.  Lots of rocks and even nails.  But unless we get another some unseasonably warm weather on a weekend, might not be back up to check out progress anytime soon.

[nikk4s]

I've been wondering how much of that section was done. Hadn't gotten around to checking it out yet. Thanks for the report.

[aerotive]

Yes thanks for the updates.  Have used the stretch from the lake to 412 several times now, beyond that has looked like too much of a hassle.

[Mith242]

Yes thanks for the updates.  Have used the stretch from the lake to 412 several times now, beyond that has looked like too much of a hassle.

Honestly for now, that's a good turning around point.  Unless you're really curious like me and just have to know, it's probably not worth continuing, for now at least.

[Mith242]

Tried writing a nice long post yesterday but something happened apparently so here's trying it again.  Anyway got off work early yesterday and it was a little wet but thought since it wasn't too cold I'd try to head up and see the progress on the Razorback Greenway in Springdale.  Initially I was a bit disappointed.  Really hasn't been much done on Powell St north of Hwy 412.  But looks like there's only one small section left to be taken care of on Park St.  Doesn't look like much has been done with the platform part of the bridge at there park there, but the metal bridge now actually spans the creek bed.  Looks like the trail is all paved around Shiloh Square, but it's still closed off as they continue to do other work there.  Looks like all the pedestals for the elevated section of trail between Johnson and Huntsville Rd are up but still now actual platform yet.  Turned around at Huntsville Rd but looked like they had a big crew working on the trail just north of there.  But after sticking to the end of the year timeline for the Razorback Greenway, looks like they've finally pushed it back to Spring 2015, with thew ribbon cutting probably happening around March/April.

Still not really seeing any progress on the southern extension of the Frisco Trail around Walker Park yet in south Fayetteville.  Looks like they're still doing work south of 15th St.  Also noticed over on the eastern part of the Mud Creek Trail in Fayetteville the city seems to be trimming back a lot of the vegetation that was near the trail.  Especially around the curvy areas.  I'm guessing to try to add more visibility for people on the trail.  A number of blind curves over there.